{Recipe} Ayran (Yoghurt Drink)

This is a repost from my old blog (October 30, 2009)

You went to the shops and you saw organic yoghurt and thought, hmm this will be very healthy and grabbed it off the shelf. You went home and put it in the fridge. The next day, you remember about the yoghurt as you rummage for a snack in the fridge, you had a taste and thought whoa that's sour! Oh well I'll put it back in there, have like a week before it expires, I'll surely do something with it by then. A week later, that yoghurt's still there. What to do? Make ayran with plain yoghurt as instructed below and vow to pick up a Ski yoghurt next time.

Ingredients:
Plain yoghurt
Water or carbonated water/soda water (in equal part to the yoghurt)
a pinch of salt

1. Mix all ingredients together and whisk or shake like you've never whisked or shaken before.
2. Chuck it in the fridge to chill.
3. Shake before serving.

That organic yoghurt we bought was utterly sour so I cheated and put some low GI raw sugar in to offset the sourness. I made it with plain water and thought I'd be clever and added a bit of flavour in the form of a slosh of lemon and lime bitters, and it tasted pretty good. So I guess you can do half soda water, half fanta or something, hehe. The Turks would probably shun me and refuse to accept this as ayran but oh well. Great on a hot day or to accompany an especially spicy meal. Afiyet olsun, ta ra~

{Recipe} Marshmallow fondant (MMF)

This is a repost from my old blog (September 10, 2009) 

Edit: I used 1 kg icing sugar to 500g marshmallows (2:1 ratio of icing sugar:marshmallow)

I was supposed to include pics and step by step instructions to make the fondant decorations I used on the previous cupcake post. If anyone wants detailed recipe and instructions, I'll gladly put them up in a later post :) Here's a photo of mini vanilla marshmallows that had to be separated into 2 containers because they came in mixed bags (I think I used 7 Betta (halal) marshmallow bags). The Big Kahuna had heaps of fun "helping" me separate them even though he did whinge I was crazy hehe.


Depending on what colours you're making, you melt it in the microwave, until just melted, add icing sugar and shortening (I used Copha) and start kneading it like crazy. When you get the right consistency, pack it up in Gladwrap, cover with good amount of Copha and refrigerate. You can add colouring before you put it away but one website says if you're making red fondant, it's better to colour it when you're using it to avoid bleeding onto the other colours.


Take it out of the fridge when you're ready, and knead again and roll and shape to your heart's desires :)


Voila! Marshmallow fondant for cakes, cupcakes, anything you fancy. Ta ra~

{Recipe} Beef Rendang

This is a repost from my old blog (August 8, 2009); please forgive the terribly blurry photo lol

Felt like a proper Malay dish last week so made myself some :) Here's the recipe with the ingredients in order of usage.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

1 lemongrass
2 red chillies (about 2 tbsp)
1 medium red onion, half sliced thinly
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger
3 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2 tsp cumin
600-750 grams beef, sliced and cut into bite pieces
1 cinnamon stick
4 curry leaves
2 tsp brown sugar
2 cups coconut milk
1 tbsp lemon juice

1. Blend lemongrass, chillies, half of onion and garlic and ginger. Set aside.
2. Mix the beef with coriander, turmeric and cumin.
3. Sautee the sliced half of the onion until soft.
4. Add the beef mix and cook until browned.
5. Add cinnamon stick, curry leaves, brown sugar and coconut milk. Cook covered for 1 hour.
6. Removed lid and cook a further 1 1/2 hours or until it reaches the consistency desired. Stir every once in a while.
7. Removed cinnamon stick and add in lemon juice.

Adjust the sugar and other spices according to your preference. Great eaten with rice cakes, glutinous rice or even plain rice/bread. I know it seems like a lotta work and takes so long! But if you're missing/craving it... Well, it'll be worth it, enjoy! Ta ra~

{Recipe} Copycat Ritz crackers

I always have a packet of Ritz crackers handy for when Umar or visiting kiddies get hungry, I can just whip out a few and cut slices of cheese into cutesy shapes and they just devour them.

But then I thought of the amount of salt and ingredients with numbers in those crackers and I wondered if someone's already replicated the recipe with much more natural (unaltered) ingredients. And Stef from the Cupcake Project did! So I copied her recipe, cut out some more salt and I was happy with the outcome. 

The crackers are all different adorable shapes that scream homemade and they are delicious! I hope you'll have a try and let me know how they turn out! 

Copycat Ritz crackers (makes about 100 pieces depending on your cutter size)

Ingredients
2-2¼ cups bread flour (you can use all purpose flour)
3 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1½ tbsp raw sugar
2 tbsp oil (I used grapeseed but you can use extra virgin olive oil)
80 g unsalted butter (cold)
2/3 cup cold water
1 tbsp unsalted butter (melted) 

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced).
2. Pulse all the dry ingredients in a food processor. Add oil and pulse.
   
3. Add butter bit by bit and pulse until thoroughly mixed through. 
   
4. Add water little by little until dough comes together. If you used too much water, add a little more flour until dough comes away from the bowl. 
   
5. Roll out thinly (about 3mm) on a floured surface and cut with a scalloped cookie cutter (or whatever small shape you like).
   
   
6. Place on lined baking trays and pierce the surface of the cracker surface with holes (I used a candy thermometer like Stef but any substitute is fine). Brush lightly with the melted butter.
7. Bake for about 10-12 minutes and cool on wire racks. Enjoy!
   

Notes:

• If you don't have a food processor, you can quickly rub the butter into the flour with your fingers.
• Cold butter gives 'layers' to these crackers.
  
• Next time I might refrigerate the dough for 20 minutes before rolling and 10 more minutes before baking to keep the shapes more consistent.

Please leave comments on other yummy snacks for the kiddies! Thank you for stopping by!

{Printable} Basic shapes

Cutting and shapes

This activity helps with gripping, wrist movement and shape identification. Have your child cut out the shapes following the straight lines and curves. Then you may want to talk about the different basic shapes.

Here is the printable of basic shapes for the cutting activity:

Basic shapes

Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Sweet banana loaf

So what are you going to do with those two overripe bananas that you wouldn't let your toddler eat yesterday because you didn't want him to spoil his appetite? You can of course just mash and freeze them. Even better, bake banana stuff!

We made banana loaf. It's not as dense as banana bread but not as light as banana cake either. Its texture is somewhere in the middle of the two. This is a sweet loaf so we didn't embellish it with anything else. And the best thing about this recipe is that there's only 6 ingredients! 

Sweet banana loaf (makes one loaf)

Ingredients

 
150 g unsalted butter
150 g raw sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
150 g self-raising cake flour (see notes)
1 tsp baking powder
2 very ripe bananas

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan-forced). Line a loaf tin. 
2. In a small bowl, mix flour and baking powder. 
3. Mash bananas and set aside.
   
4. In the mixer, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. 
   
5. Add eggs and mix until incorporated.
   
6. Add flour mixture and beat on low until just mixed. 
   
7. Fold in bananas with a spatula. 
   
8. Place in loaf tin and bake for 25 minutes. The centre of loaf will be 'jiggly'. Turn down the oven to 120°C (100°C fan-forced) and bake for another 10 minutes. 
   
9. Skewer should come out clean. Otherwise, leave for another 5-10 minutes to bake. 
10. Cool completely and slice.
    

Notes:

• Cake flour makes bakes very soft and fluffy (soft flour). If you don't have any self-raising cake flour, you can just use plain self-raising flour but the loaf will turn out a little denser.
• I am a sucker for warm bakes so I sliced it while warm. It was a little crumbly because it was so soft but so worth it!
• The loaf is awesome on the day and becomes a little denser on the next but don't worry it will still be awesome. It should keep for a few days in an airtight container at room temperature.

Thank you for stopping by!

{DIY} Father's day printable and gift

Tomorrow us down under will be celebrating Father's Day!

We just repurposed a honey jar and filled it up with Nijaz's favourite nuts (you can fill it up with whatever dad's favourite nibs like chocolates, popcorn, etc.) and printed out a simple tag on card stock. Then, I punched a hole on it and hung it around the jar with twine. Easy peasy and cheap-ish hehe.

Umar also made a pet rock for him at playgroup and we got him a card.

I've included the printables in black and white and blue, just click on the appropriate links below.

Happy Father's day in blue

Happy Father's day in black & white

Happy Papa's day in blue

Happy Papa's day in black & white

All four

Happy father's day to all the awesome guys in our lives!

Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Plain bagels

We don't have a kosher bakery near us (not that I know of anyway) and the bagels we get from Coles are $5.40 for 4, that can get quite steep to have every other morning. 

I've been meaning to try out the bagel recipe in this book, One more slice by Leila Lindholm, for a while now. I've tried out her pizza, brownies and a few other recipes and I liked them. I think I got the book from Book Depository when they had one of their hourly flash sales.

It's a recipe with simple ingredients but from my experience, requires a bit of technical expertise. I followed it pretty much to the T but next time I'll know what to do differently. Have a look at my notes at the bottom. 

These bagels are absolutely delicious toasted. They are best eaten on the day and I recommend slicing and freezing what you have left for later. 

Bagels (makes about 12)

Ingredients
800g bread flour
2 tsp dry instant yeast
1 tbsp salt
2 tbsp honey
500ml lukewarm water
Polenta (optional)
1 egg white

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Mix in honey. Add water little by little until incorporated. 
   
2. Using the dough hook on your mixer, knead for 10-15 minutes (see notes). If kneading by hand, I'm guessing you'd have to knead for a long time. 
   
3. Cover bowl with a tea towel and leave to rise for about 50 minutes until doubled in size. 
   
4. Knead dough by hand for a few minutes and divide them into 12 portions (we had 13 because I gave a piece to Umar; he used cookie cutters, cutlery and whatever else he could use with it). Liberally flour (or use polenta) a baking tray or two.
   
   
   
5. Shape them into balls and press in the middle with your thumb and stretch out the round shape. Place the circles on the floured trays and cover with a tea towel and let rise again for another 40 minutes. 
   
6. Preheat oven to 180°C (170°C fan-forced). Place 2 pizza stones to heat up as well. In the meantime, put a huge pot of water to a roiling boil.
   
7. Drop in 2 bagels at a time for about 30 seconds (make sure they're submerged in water the entire time).  
   
8. Dry on them on paper towels.
9. Take out the pizza stones and sprinkle some polenta on them. Arrange bagels on top, brush with beaten egg white and bake for 25-30 minutes until golden or to your liking. If you don't have pizza stones, you can line a baking tray or two with baking paper and arrange the bagels on them. This will probably result in a soggy bottom but they'll still be delicious.
   
10. Cool, slice and enjoy with your favourite toppings!
    

Notes:

• It's still cold here so I let my dough rise in the oven at 30°C.
• Umar's dough, which he kneaded like crazy, turned out the best bagel in the batch. So I will recommend kneading on the longer side. I suppose the more you work the gluten, the chewier (the better) the bagels.
• Next time, I will try replacing some of the bread flour with gluten flour to make it even stronger.
• Next time I will make larger holes because they really do puff up after the second rise. The holeless bagels bothered me so much that I used a tiny cookie cutter to make new holes after boiling them haha.
• I used baking paper for the second rise and the dough stuck to it, making them lose their shape when I peeled them off to boil.

I will update the recipe if I do anything else differently.

Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Soft oat and coconut slices

I absolutely love Carman's Oat slice and I could have them every day! But they're pretty pricey in the long run so I thought I'd find a recipe that would make something similar. I came across this one from Budget Bytes. I changed a few things as I tend to do. I used honey in place of brown sugar, milk instead of soy milk and omitted the walnuts. 

These things!

These turned out soft and delicious but sadly not the texture I wanted to copy the Carman's slice. Taste-wise it's pretty much there though. So I will have to find a recipe that is more cookie-like in nature. 

The slices are on the less sweet side so if you want them sweeter, consider adding sugar (not more honey as that might add too much liquid to the recipe) or even make a quick icing to drizzle on top. 

The baby was napping so we mixed everything by hand. If you use a mixer to cream the butter, the slice will turn out puffier and lighter. 

Ingredients (6-9 slices)

¼ cup unsalted butter, softened and at room temperature
¼ cup honey
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla essence
1½ cups traditional oats
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
½ to 1 cup shredded coconut

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (170°C fan-forced).
2. Line your baking tray (I used a 9x9" glass dish).
3. Mix all the dry ingredients together. 
   
4. Cream butter. Mix in honey.
   
5. Add egg and mix until fluffy. 
   
6. Add milk and vanilla essence and mix thoroughly.
7. Add dry ingredients and mix gently until just mixed. 
   
8. Place in baking tray and bake for 20-30 minutes. The time depends on the type of dish you use, oven, etc. When it's done, it should look golden and start browning around the edges and you'd smell the 'doneness' if you know what I mean lol.
   
9. Cool and slice as you wish. I used a bread knife to get clean slices. 
   

Notes:

• When baking, make sure your ingredients are at room temperature unless stated otherwise
• I use unsalted butter when making sweet bakes

 Thank you for stopping by!

{Recipe} Wholemeal bread

This recipe is altered from Five Heart Home. I use regular wholemeal flour instead of white wholemeal flour and halved the recipe. The recipe has a 'starter' for the bread which makes it soft and yummy!

 Ingredients 

 

2 cups wholemeal flour
3 tbsp gluten flour
2 tsp yeast
1 ¼ cups lukewarm water

1/2 tbsp salt
3 tbsp honey
3 tbsp oil (I use coconut oil or grapeseed oil)
2 tsp lemon juice (not pictured)
1 cup wholemeal flour 

 

1. In the mixer bowl, mix the first three ingredients and add the water. Mix on low with the dough hook for one minute and scrape the bowl with a spatula and mix again for a few seconds. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and set aside for ten minutes (This is the starter).
   
2. In the meantime, if it is cold where you live, preheat the oven to 30°C. Otherwise, your bread can just rise at room temperature. Grease a loaf pan or line it with baking paper.
3. After ten minutes, add salt, honey, oil and lemon juice, mix. 
    
4. Add the rest of the flour and knead until thoroughly mixed.
5. Put the mixer on low and knead for 6 minutes.
6. Dough should be clean off the bowl and just the teeniest bit sticky.
7. Put the dough in the loaf pan and place in the oven if using or on the counter to rise for 40 minutes.
8. Put your timer on 35 minutes. Turn the oven up to 180°C (fan-forced, 190°C conventional) without taking the loaf pan out while preheating. If you rise your dough on the counter, put the pan in the oven while preheating it.
9. When bread is done, it sounds hollow when you tap its bottom.

Notes:

• I always store my yeast in the fridge and only take it out right before using it.
• I just cut a piece of lemon and squeeze the amount of juice needed into the bowl (if you do this, make sure you don't get any pips in the dough!)
• This bread stays nice for at least 2 days but makes great toasts day 2 onwards anyway. 
• Sorry for the lack of photos (and shadowy ones at that) I was in a rush!)

 Thank you for stopping by!